Falling
by Some1tookmyname
Summary: Sometimes important things are said in the heat of an argument. One-shot.


_If you read "Adjustments" then you will have to know this has nothing to do with that story at all. Different scenario all together. _

_One-shot fluffy stuff, just for fun._

**Falling**

"No! No way! Forget it!" He wasn't going to back down on this. He'd shut her office door and closed the blinds because he knew this was going to be a show down.

"You are being ridiculous. It's perfectly safe." She shuffled file folders around, slamming them onto her desk harder than needed while he stationed himself by the door.

"I don't care how safe you think it is. That body is over the side of a cliff, Bones. You know what that means? That means you, in a harness and ropes, over the side of a mountain. _A mountain! _Not going to happen." He was serious and she knew it.

But so was she. "There is more risk of me getting hurt in a car accident on the way to the crime scene than there is something going wrong with the equipment. Are you going to keep me off the road from now on as well?"

'Okay, and I'm the ridiculous one? You have to be in a car, Bones, but you don't have to be over the edge of a cliff!"

"There are remains to be examined. It is a skeleton. My _job_ necessitates that I examine them."

"No. Someone else can do it. Which squintern is on this week? Wendell? Daisy? Let them do it."

"You would rather take Daisy in the field with you than let me go out there?" Now she was furious.

"When it comes to you and your safety and the safety of our child, yes! I would put in a hundred hours with Daisy if it meant you weren't dangling off some godforsaken cliff over a pile of bones!"

"Booth, I'm pregnant, not incapacitated. This is not dangerous. Please, just let me do my job."

He pulled out his ace in the hole, the thing he knew would anger her the most, but the one he knew was his best shot at convincing her not to take this case with him.

"I will go over your head. I doubt Cam would allow this. It's a liability."

He saw the fire ignite in her eyes, her jaw set. Now the fight was really going to start. Now there would be yelling. Her voice would lower first and then? Then it would get ugly.

"You wouldn't dare." She sounded quietly fierce.

"Do you really want to find out if I would?" He knew he was being a jerk and he just didn't care.

"I cannot believe you! How dare you?" Her volume grew louder as he'd predicted. "What are you accusing me of? Of being reckless with our baby? Of not caring for it's safety? That I'm a bad mother? That is unfair and uncalled for. This is my JOB, and I'm good at it. The best, actually, and I refuse to be held back because you want to be an over protective alpha-male. The equipment is checked before each use. I would check it myself. I've climbed mountains, Booth, I rappelled off cliffs. It's safer than a lot of other things I do every single day. Don't you trust me? Don't you think I know what I'm doing? Don't you think I care? Do you really think I would do this if I thought there was a risk to the baby?"

Yeah. He'd pushed too far. He put his hands up, tried to reel them both in. "No. No. Of course not, Bones. I just… you're so fearless. It scares me, alright? You believe that as long as safety checks have been made and everyone has done their job that everything will be fine. But I know that accidents happen. People get lazy. Safety checks aren't always thorough…my God. Can you…I can't breathe when I think what it would be like to watch you fall…" His voice shook and for the first time the enormity of his fears hit her.

"I'm not going to fall, Booth." She soothed, her fury gone.

"You can't promise me that!" Now it was his turn to be loudly angry. 'You are the one who always tells me there are no absolutes. You are the one who says we can't know the future. But here you are telling me it will all be fine. It's too big a risk! You can call me alpha-male, you can call me ridiculous, but there is NO WAY the woman I love is going over the side of a cliff two months pregnant. Hell, there's no way that's happening EVER! We have a child to think of now and from now on. And if I have to go to Cam and tell her everything I will, because I can't let you do it, Bones. I just…" he lost his bluster when he saw the look on her face. "I just need you to not do this." He finished lamely.

"What did you say?" She whispered

"What did I say…what? When?" He didn't know what he'd said, to be honest. His temper had taken his tongue and run away with it.

"You…you said that you love me."

He took a step towards her, a small smile on his face, his voice soft. "Well…yeah. I do. You know that, right?"

She shook her head, in an attempt to stave off tears and answer his question all at once. "I…I thought maybe you did, but I wasn't sure…"

"Bones! I tell you all the time!"

"While we're having sex!"

"And that doesn't count?" God, how could he ever have let her question his feelings? How could he have left her in doubt?

"I just…I figured it was bedroom talk." She looked down at the files on her desk, avoiding his eyes.

It struck him then that these were words she hadn't heard from anyone who truly loved her in more than fifteen years. That no man had ever told her "I love you" and if he had it was manipulative and insincere and that she was smart enough to know that. He crossed her office and came around her desk to stand beside her.

"Well I do. I love you. Which is why this terrifies me. There is too much at risk for me. You and the baby…I swear Bones, it would kill me if anything happened to you." He put a knuckle under her chin, drawing her face up to engage her eyes with his own. "I can't turn this off. I can't pretend it doesn't scare the crap out of me. I won't go to Cam. But please, I'm begging you, look at it from my perspective. There would be nothing I could do…" The terror at the thought alone didn't allow him to finish.

She met his eyes and what she saw there stole her breath. Without a second's hesitation she knew her answer.

"Take Clark."

"Yeah?" He knew what it took for her to say that, so he stayed very neutral in his reaction.

"Yes. He's very good. I'm sure he will do just fine."

"I didn't say it to win the argument, Bones."

"And I didn't let you win the argument because you said it."

He grinned. "Fair enough. I'll get Clark and we're outta here. We shouldn't be too long, I hope. Dinner?"

"Sure. Call me when you are on your way back. We'll do takeout at my place."

"Great!" He headed for the door, then turned back around, crossed the room in two long strides, took her face in his hands and kissed her senseless.

She kissed him equally in return. And then:

"Just so we're clear, you understand that I did _let_ you win, right?"

"Yeah, Bones. I got it."

"Because I really could do it."

"I know."

"Fine. See you tonight."

He left then, his gait a little happier, his shoulders a little straighter, his eyes a little brighter and his heart a whole lot lighter.

Because he knew Temperance Brennan only let people win when she loved them back.

~End~

_Reviews are loved and appreciated greatly._


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